Wherein a thirtysomething girl named Melissa Bastian finally stops avoiding the subject of fibromyalgia, and tries to talk about it productively instead.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Apparently I really am losing my hair from stress.

From the Mayo Clinic:

Stress and hair loss can be related.

The most common type of stress-induced hair loss is telogen effluvium. In this condition, emotional or physical stress — related to a death in the family, pregnancy, severe weight loss or surgery, for example — pushes large numbers of growing hairs into a resting phase. Within a few months, the affected hairs may fall out suddenly when simply combing or washing your hair. The hair typically grows back when the emotional or physical stress is resolved, although this can take months.

This seems to be what I am experiencing. It seems that between the physical stress of the health problems themselves, combined with the emotional stress of them and work and the wedding, is making my hair fall out. The irony being that, I gotta tell ya, having your hair fall out is pretty damn stressful! At least it's only the diffuse kind and I don't have any bald spots...

I stayed home from work today. At some point during my ten minutes of breakfast, I started to feel very weak and shaky and dizzy. It was basically all I could do to get back into bed. I thought maybe I could go in for half a day, but no. I feel better now than I did this morning, but not better enough to deal with the subway, the city, the office.

In fact, getting too dizzy to sit up again, must lay down once more... living in this body is just a laugh riot.

About Me

vegan in new orleans, hurrah. i was born in a storm, and raised in one too. and then one named katrina changed my life. i have a hard time saying where i'm from, but i can tell you for sure that my heart and my home are in new orleans, the place where i wasn't born. i left there after nine years not knowing what i had - what's that old cliche? now i've returned with a better appreciation. in the interim, i spent 5.5 years in nyc riding the subway and taking pictures. i get by with a husband who loves to drive me crazy, four rescued rabbits, and one rescued monster who thinks himself a cat.